HD
View & Deep Zoom Photoshop Plugin

This page describes a Photoshop
import-export plugin available for the Windows OS. This plugin is
a tool that exports an image (8,
16, or 32 bit/channel; RGB
or Grayscale) from Photoshop to
a tiled image set, xml manifest and example web page. The plugin is available from the Microsoft Research download page
here (32 bit) or
here (64 bit).
The same installation package also installs the
hdmake
tool. A forum for community based support of
the Photoshop plugin is available
here.

In order to use the plugin you will need to manually copy it
to the appropriate folder. The installation package will place
HDView_x86.8be or HDView_x64.8be (the plugin) in the folder indicated during the installation.
You will then need to copy it to the Plug-Ins\Import-Export folder for
your version of Photoshop, e.g. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop
CS4\Plug-Ins\Import-Export or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-Ins\Import-Export.

Once installed you should see "HDView
& Deep Zoom..." in the Photoshop File:Export menu
(if Export is not available - make sure to click "Show All Menu Items" at the
bottom of the File menu). Invoking this option will give
you the following dialog:

The dialog UI is
described here:

Folder ...

Use this to choose the folder where the
output files will be created.

Base File Name:

The exporter will generate a folder of
tiles, xml manifests for use with HDView and Deep Zoom, and
an example web page.
The Base File Name will be used for each of these items.
For example in the above screen shot, the the tiles folder will
be named SpaceNeedle_files, the Deep Zoom xml manifest SpaceNeedle.xml,
the HD View xml manifest SpaceNeedle_hdv.xml, and the
web page SpaceNeedle.htm.

Compression Quality

A number from 1 to 100 indicating
compression quality. Larger numbers generate higher
quality images but larger file sizes. Smaller numbers have
more compression artifacts but smaller file sizes. Note
that Quality '100' indicates lossless compression and will
result in 'png' rather than 'jpg' output tiles.

Zip

By default the files are output into a .zip archive, which can be
previewed by HD View (but not HD View SL). To not zip the files
and instead have them written directly to the file
system, just
uncheck the "zip" check box.

Split to Size (MB)

If the zip checkbox is
selected, then this field is used to optionally split into
multiple archives each of maximum size specified here.

Projection

Use this to indicate a 'flat' image,
'spherical' (also known as equirectangular) image or
'cylindrical' image. A flat image is one that hasn't been
warped by an image stitching program. For flat images it
is not necessary to supply a field of view or the
horizontal/vertical extents. Flat images will just result
in a simple translation effect when viewed in HD View. You
will not see a surround viewer effect for flat images.

Spherical and cylindrical images are produced by image stitching
applications, for example Photoshop, PTGui, Autopano and Windows
Live Photo Gallery. If you select one of these projections
then you will also need to supply either a horizontal or vertical field of
view or horizontal/vertical extents. Selecting Center Image
indicates to center the image either horizontally or vertically, in
this case only a horizontal or vertical field of view need be specified.

Most stitching programs produce centered output. Windows Live Photo Gallery
and Autopano both store projection metadata in stitched image files.
The plugin will automatically read this metadata and initialize the dialog fields.
If the metadata is not present or no longer matches the image size (due to cropping and/or
resizing of the image) the projection data must be provided. For
example see how to take the PTGui UI and fill out this field
here.

Viewer

The exporter can generate
either Silverlight Deep Zoom or HD View output or both ('Automatic').
Under Deep Zoom the 'Projection' options will be disabled as only flat
images are supported. Also Deep Zoom and Automatic will not be
options for 16bit/channel or 32bit/channel sources.
Selecting HD View will always result in 'wdp' output tiles.
Selecting Silverlight Deep Zoom will generate a web page that
uses the
HD View
SL Silverlight program. More information on HD View SL
is available
here.

Web Page Options

You can control the generated web page via
these options. Full Screen means that a page that uses
most of the page real-estate for your image will be generated.
Fixed Size lets you indicate the size of the HD
View control on the generated page.

Selecting Open Web Page After Export will launch the system's default
web browser on the newly generated page.